Cuap. I. SOCIAL CONDITION. 17 
show the most lively interest in their departure, although it is highly 
improbable that any of them will return to the same colony. The 
swarming or exodus of the winged males and females of the Saiiba ant 
takes place in January and February, that is, at the commencement 
of the rainy season. They come out in the evening in vast numbers, 
causing quite a commotion in the streets and Janes. They are of very 
large size, the female measuring no less than two and a quarter inches 
in expanse of wing; the male is not much more than half this 
size. They are so eagerly preyed upon by insectivorous animals, 
that on the morning after their flight not an individual is to be seen, 
a few impregnated females alone escaping the slaughter, to found new 
colonies. 
At the time of our arrival, Parad had not quite recovered from the 
effects of a series of revolutions, brought about by the hatred which 
existed betweeen the native Brazilians and the Portuguese; the former, 
in the end, calling to their aid the Indian and mixed coloured popu- 
Jation. The number of inhabitants of the city had decreased, in con 
sequence of these disorders, from 24,500 in 1819, to 15,000 in 1848. 
Although the public peace had not been broken for twelve years before 
the date of our visit, confidence was not yet completely restored, 
and the Portuguese merchants and tradesmen would not trust them- 
selves to live at their beautiful country houses or rocinhas, which lie 
embosomed in the luxuriant shady gardens around the city. No pro- 
gress had been made in clearing the second-growth forest, which had 
grown over the once cultivated grounds, and now reached the end 
of all the suburban streets. The place had the aspect of one which 
had seen better days; the public buildings, including the palaces of 
the President and Bishop, the cathedral, the principal churches and 
convents, all seemed constructed on a scale of grandeur far beyond 
the present requirements of the city. Streets full of extensive 
private residences, built in the Italian style of architecture, were 
in a neglected condition, weeds and flourishing young trees growing 
from large cracks in the masonry. The large public squares were 
overgrown with weeds, and impassable on account of the swampy 
places which occupied portions of their areas. Commerce, however, 
was now beginning to revive, and before I left the country I saw 
great improvements, as I shall have to relate towards the conclusion 
of this narrative. 
The province of which Para is the capital was, at the time I allude to, 
the most extensive in the Brazilian empire, being about 1560 miles in 
length from east to west, and about 600 in breadth. Since that date— 
namely, in 1853—it has been divided into two by the separation of 
the Upper Amazons as a distinct province. It formerly constituted a 
section, capitania, or governorship of the Portuguese colony. Originally 
it was well peopled by Indians, varying much in social condition 
according to their tribe, but all exhibiting the same general physical 
characters, which are those of the American red man somewhat 
modified by long residence in an equatorial forest country. Most of 
the tribes are now extinct or forgotten—at least, those which originally 
peopled the banks of the main river, their descendants having amalga- 
2 
